running away from it all.....

I had to speak for a local Church group this Sunday and I shared the following story (slightly embellished here for your reading pleasure).......

When I was in High School, I was on the Football team for a year. The coach, at one practice after I had a particularly good game, said I was the best player on the team. I played defensive tackle and it was great fun. All I had to do was tackle the guy with the ball, or rush in and slam the quarterback.

Now that might not seem like much, but consider this. In Nebraska, where I grew up, they took Football seriously. Very seriously. Our town had a population of about 6500 and the High School Football (notice that I capitalized Football, because Football is that important) Stadium held at least a couple of thousand people. And, it was always filled up for varsity games. That's about a third of the town that came out for Friday Night Lights. Football was serious business in small town Nebraska.

So, after the coach told me about my prowess, I decided to not play the next year and try a new sport. After all, I had reached the pinnacle of achievement on the gridiron. I could now assume my place among the myriad of men who could look back at their younger days and say, "Those were the best days of my life!". and, "If only the coach would have put me in in the third quarter of that playoff game. Things would sure be different."

The year after that momentous achievement, I tried cross-country. Cross country requires a different skill set and a different type of conditioning than Football. I was, needless to say, not varsity cross country material. I was surprised to learn that they were even concerned with things like varsity and jr. varsity in cross country.

One cold and blustery day, practice consisted of running up hills head on into the stingingly chilly breeze. Now this was something I could do. charge up the hill, then jog down another while catching my breath and preparing to charge up another one. I did great. So good, that the coaches decided I would run with the varsity boys at the next meet, or pointless run, or run that had no point or whatever they called the thing.



I have to turn in for the evening now, so you will have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what happened on my debut run with the varsity boys and what the point of sharing it with you is. It will be on the radio sometime soon. Maybe this Saturday. But, it is embellished some here, so you'll probably get a better story than everyone heard. So check back soon.